“Personal disappointment” plagues Ricciardo after P12 finish in Monaco

Daniel Ricciardo will try to take the positives from his Monaco Grand Prix weekend despite feeling some “personal disappointment” after a lacklustre 12th-place finish in Monte Carlo.

While the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix winner failed to live up to his previous performance, this year’s event was a successful one for the RB team with Yuki Tsunoda holding onto his eighth-place to seal four more points.

As for Ricciardo, however, it was a pointless outing after finishing two laps down.

His, and indeed the entire grid’s inability to move through the field wasn’t a shock to Ricciardo, with the Australian anticipating a dull run in the midfield, hampered by his starting position in P12.

Ricciardo found himself stuck behind an Aston Martin-led DRS train for much of the 78-lap race and was only momentarily released as they were required to run two compounds, prompting Aston’s mid-race stops.

“After yesterday’s qualifying, I came into today mentally prepared for a race like that,” he said.

“In this case, not qualifying at the front, there’s a highly likely chance that the race here is being dictated by someone else’s pace, and this is how it was.”

Before the lengthy Red Flag delay, Ricciardo’s launch from the line was one he described as his best of the year, but his hard work went to waste at the restart. 

With Esteban Ocon retiring due to damage, Ricciardo inherited a grid position, taking the standing start from P11. 

On the run into Sainte Devote, Riccardo was passed by Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, a costly loss for his distant prospects of a points finish. 

“You can always hope that things can change or something can happen in the race, and I think the first start was probably one of the best starts I had this year.

“But then after the second start, once I saw Alonso in front of me doing all he could to keep his tyres till the end, I realised soon that it would have been hard. 

“I tried to keep pressure on him, but obviously, he’s very experienced, and Monaco is a track that requires such a big mistake to make possible some overtaking.”

He was left in “heavy traffic” for the remainder of his Monaco Grand Prix, barring two laps where he was able to enjoy the special Monte Carlo outing.

“I had two laps of clean air today, where I could push a little bit more and it was definitely enjoyable, but for the rest of the race I had to have a lot of patience. 

“There are certainly some positives to take from this weekend, but at the same time, there’s also some personal disappointment.”

The grid will have the next weekend off to recover from celebrating Charles Leclerc’s unanimously praised home race victory before flying across to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix, a race that Ricciardo has also hailed victorious at in the past.

“Looking at the next race, Montréal is a good track that I enjoy, so we’ll try to keep things going better. 

“Charles got his first win here in Monaco today, in the past he’s definitely experienced some highs and lows around this track, so he deserved it and I’m very happy for him.”

The Canadian Grand Prix will run across June 7-9 at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.

Image: Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

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